Oil Leak

b45701

Cadet
Joined
Oct 30, 2005
Messages
14
1995 Rinker 212
5.7L 0f287274
Alpha 1 Gen 2 0f483431

Newbie drive question. Sorry if I don’t know the names of some of the parts.

I’ve got an oil leak coming from my lower drive. When i put the drive down oil comes from the water intake.

After looking through the manual (thanks Don S) and pulling the drive, i have a question as to where it might be coming from.

Question:
With the drive off and the bell housing still on the boat, there’s a valve on the right hand side on the bell housing between the 2 upper studs. Looks like this supplies oil from the remote reservoir to the lower unit, if u press the check ball gear lube comes out. Other then the gasket that seals between the bell housing and the drive are there supposed any O-rings. In the Merc manual sect 14 page 4b-6 it shows 2 o-rings. There were none when i pulled it apart. Could this be the source of the leak? I don’t see how oil could get from there to the water intake though.

Went to the local Merc dealer, to ask some questions and purchase parts. Merc Tech said they usually don’t have those o-rings and that the gasket should seal where the valve is. He also said the oil is probably coming from the shift shaft seal?? At that time the owner came by and told the tech to get back to work and told me that if I wanted to talk with one of their techs it’d cost me $98 an hour for questions. I asked him if he might know the source of my leak, he replied no and that if I wanted to bring it in to make an appointment to drop it off…

What do you guys think?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
 

b45701

Cadet
Joined
Oct 30, 2005
Messages
14
Re: Oil Leak

sorry for the confusion.

O-rings around the valve. There was an o-ring around the water passage on the left side.
 

Gary H NC

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Dec 1, 2005
Messages
8,972
Re: Oil Leak

Sounds like the shop owner was a jerk.For 98 bucks an hour i think you could find a better place to take it.
 

Don S

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Aug 31, 2004
Messages
62,321
Re: Oil Leak

That valve on the right side of the pivot housing is a nothing more than a quick disconnect between the engine side with the reservoir, and the drive. The QD prevents the gear lube from leaking out when removing the drive.
If the orings were missing off the valve on the engine side, it should cause any external leaks. The gasket seals the pivot housing to dive joint.
The best thing to do is drain the gear lube and do a pressure check of the drive. Spray some soapy water on all connections and you will find the leak, and yes the shift shaft seal and complete bushing assembly leaked quite often . There is a new bushing assembly instead of just replacing the seal. It's PN 28-815921A21

PS: If you are talking to a tech that is working on someone elses boat, they are on a job and costing that customer $XX per hour. If he stops to give you free information, that means that other customer is paying for your free info. You should have been talking to the proper people, not the techs.
 

b45701

Cadet
Joined
Oct 30, 2005
Messages
14
Re: Oil Leak

Thanks for the information guys.

Gary, not sure what his deal was today, we all have bad days i guess.

Don, Thanks for the information. Is the bushing easy enough to do at home? Any special tools? How do i perfrom the presuure test, do i put compressed air into it somewhere?

Completely agree with u approaching the tech, i would never have approached him, except he was trying to make time with the checkout girl when i was leaving, and i couldn't leave.
 
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